The auditioned Midcoast a cappella vocal ensemble VoXX: Voice of Twenty offers its winter concert series, “Star of the Sea,” presented in four venues in January, led by Music Director John Mehrmann.  

These concerts feature pieces centered on themes of the sea (with some side-trips down rivers or other bodies of water), ranging from folk songs and shanties to Shakespearean settings to hymns and psalms. The program takes its name from four very different settings of the hymn Ave Maris Stella.  As with other VoXX programs, the music spans the centuries, from the fifteenth century to the present day.  

"This program hearkens back to VoXX’s beginnings in the early part of this century as Ave Maris Stella, a group of passionate singers who gathered in living rooms to challenge themselves with early, a cappella music," said VoXX, in a news release. "Since then, we’ve grown in size, skill, courage, and repertoire, entertaining not only ourselves but audiences in the Midcoast and beyond."  

Early works in this program include settings of Ave Maris Stella by Guillaume Dufay (ca. 1397-1474) and Palestrina (1525-1594). Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pieces include two meditations on text from Psalm 137, By the Waters of Babylon: Salamone Rossi’s Hebrew setting, 'Al Naharot, and Bach’s chorale An Wasserflüssen Babylon based on a Lutheran hymn tune penned by Wolfgang Dachstein in 1525. 

Later works include Gustav Holst’s I Love My Love; two pieces by Matthew Harris with lyrics from Shakespearean songs; Samuel Barber’s To Be Sung on the Water, and versions of Ave Maris Stella, by Edvard Grieg and James MacMillan. 

The program also includes an arrangement of O, Shenandoah by VoXX member Charlie Grey, and, as has become a VoXX tradition, the premiere of a new piece by Music Director John Mehrmann, Jonah’s Prayer. 

VoXX will present “Star of the Sea” four times: 

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Saturday, January 18, at 7:00pm

Hammer Hall at Bay Chamber 

5 Mountain Street, Camden

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Sunday, January 19 at 3:00pm

Unitarian Universalist Church

27 Miller Street, Belfast

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Saturday, January 25 at 7:00pm

St. Patrick Church

380 Academy Hill Road, Newcastle

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Sunday, January 26 at 3:00pm

United Church of Christ

10 Church Lane, Phippsburg

Tickets are $20, available online at www.voiceoftwenty.com, or at the door. FMI visit www.voiceoftwenty.com.